Speaker
Wen Yin
Description
The QCD axion mass may receive contributions from small-size instantons or other Peccei-Quinn breaking effects. I show that it is possible for such a heavy QCD axion to induce slow-roll inflation if the potential is sufficiently flat near its maximum by balancing the small instanton contribution with another Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking term. In addition, requiring the axion hilltop inflation may result in the strong CP phase that is close to zero.
